Bluesky Gives You Everything Twitter Locks Behind a $42K Paywall — For Free

Bluesky is built on the AT Protocol — a fully open, decentralized protocol where all public data is accessible via REST API. No API key. No rate limit anxiety. No $42,000/year enterprise tier. Compare this to Twitter/X: Feature Twitter/X API Bluesky AT Protocol Price $100/mo Basic, $42K/yr Enterprise Free Authentication OAuth 2.0 required None for public data Rate limits 1,500 tweets/read per 15 min Generous, no strict limits Scope Restricted after 2023 changes Full access to all public data Data format JSON JSON User base ~500M ~41M (growing 300%/yr) What You Can Access on Bluesky for Free GET https://public.api.bsky.app/xrpc/app.bsky.actor.getProfile?actor=handle.bsky.social GET https://public.api.bsky.app/xrpc/app.bsky.feed.getAuthorFeed?actor=did:plc:... GET https://public.api.bsky.app/xrpc/app.bsky.graph.getFollowers?actor=handle.bsky.social Profiles, posts, followers, following, likes, reposts — all structured JSON. Why This Matters for Research The tech-savvy early adopters migr